Cursed Apotheosis
by TheLastLamb
Summary: Out in the frozen wastes RWBY and company find an old man, or does he find them? Matters not because he speaks of legends and fairy tales, magic long forgotten. He offers them to show what he speaks of. With no great choice, they follow the old man.
1. Chapter 1

They hid in a cave to escape the blizzard, Oscar sat down shaking next to the already dying flint fire trying to warm his frozen bones. Ruby and Jaune tried to cook meals over it, with no great success. Maria sat on a cold rock her mind wandering and meditating on their next steps on the frozen plains outside.

Blake and Yang sat together sharing stories of what they should do if Adam ever returned, Yang pretending to be more courageous than she actually is and Blake cheered her on. Ren and Nora sat up the sleeping bags and tried to warm themselves a glance or two lasting maybe too long for each others liking. Qrow and Weiss scanned the cave, looking for all and any sign of danger. Qrows blood tinged eyes watched the shape of a man in the snow storm approach them, his body already focusing on a fight. Qrows breathing slowed to a crawl and the handle of scythe already comfortable in his palm he stood at the entrance of the small outcove.

The man kept walking slumped over in the heavy snowfall, bound to his body a great rope, attached to the other end was a dead deer its blood still trailing behind them. The old man's great silver beard covered in snow, he approached the cave and stood staring at the two hunters and let his heavy gasps escape him. Then he spoke.

"Hello." The pair did not respond to him, they simply stood like statues ready for a trick by one of Salem's pawns. "How many of you are here?"

"Enough." Qrow answered in his natural raspy voice.

"May I come in? I have a meal." The man gestured to the great deer with the rope slung around its neck and the blood still pouring out the open wound on its left rib cage. Weiss turned away for a moment in disgust. "I assure you I won't stay here long. Just until the blizzard clears and I can get my marbles again." Qrow was against it, but with low supplies and unsure of their current path they had to take a gamble. They let the old man to stay.

The old man slung the dead deer over his shoulder and walked deeper into the grotto past every curious eyes that wondered who he was.

The old man removed his old gloves to begin his work. He cut deep into the animal letting the warm blood spill over his scarred fingers, he skinned it with such profivency it seemed he spent lifetimes perfecting the method. He took the rib cage with his silver prosthetic arm and threw them aside, removing the lungs with a great tug he placed them on top of the bones that once protected them. When he clasped the heart of the animal with great care, making sure not to damage it too much, he wrapped it in leather and hide, putting it inside his satchel. He began to carve out the meat for eating.

"Gosh Darnit..." Ruby muttered under her breath, as the flame that was so promising died out again. Her stomach rumbled in great hunger, she was shivering, and no matter how hard she wrapped herself in her cloak the nail biting cold still reached her. Jaune had tried to collect more dried branches and leaves around the cave to increase their chances of not dying of hypothermia.

"May I help?" The old man stood above her covered in blood, his hat and beard caked in snow, he slipped into one knee and reached into the pocket of his wasted brown leather jacket. He pulled out a gunpowder bullet and bit into it, separating the casing and the round, he held it between his index finger and thumb, he waited for a spark to appear from the flame. He threw the gunpowder into the flames and it raised immediately into the air. Real heat now.

"Thanks... " She offered a short smile to the old man as she warmed her hands. "I'm Ruby and you?" For a moment the man is hesitant, his mouth stays open for a second before he answers her. It was enough to make up something.

"Uriah." He answers.

"What brings you out here Uriah?" At this point Oscar and Jaune have joined around the fire placing more cold leaves and branches trying to increase the flame and comfort.

"That is a good question, truly I am not sure. But there are legends… legends of magic in this place." Oscars shifted and shook a little, it gave him away immediately as knowing something and the stranger was not blind to it. He pressed the boy on it. "You believe in magic son?" But before Oscars answer could escape his lips, Ruby saved him with a simple statement that they could all agree on lying to the man.

"Magic isn't real. It's fairy tales." Slowly the rest of the group had come around the fire growing a circle of debate for them. The man smiled at her answer as he began to cook.

"Do you truly believe in that or is lying common among you?" Uriah took a knife hidden inside his jacket and pointed the blade at himself as he handed it to any who wanted the slab of meat atop the flames.

"It's the truth." Uriah chuckled and placed his hands over the warm fire looking deeply into the silver eyed girl.

"And what if it is real Ruby? What would you do if one day you were given power beyond your wildest dreams? What would any of you do?" The question lingers in the air, scratching at their minds of what they could and would do. Some even ask if they should do anything and keep it a secret like the world as ordered so long ago.

"I'd make it not so goddamn cold." Oscars answers, some smile and some laugh, Uriah looks displeased with the answer but he does not push his case any further. These children hide something from Uriah. It's so curiously sweet.

"Where you from Uriah?" Qrow asked that viperous taste of distrust still in his tongue.

"From the desert of the Issachar, my village." He knew this wasn't a place they knew, this place has been ripped from history. "By the accent I'll gamble that a majority of you come from Vale. Except the girl in white. She dresses in Atlas fashion."

The guesses were dangerously close but still obvious things, they did not interrogate the stranger any further.

They shared the meal and spoke among one another letting any information to escape to be little and unimportant for their greater plans.

Slowly the great white thunderous storm had come to a halt, the sun dying slowly across the edge of the sky, the outside was a beautiful white covered wonderland. Blake who rarely ever saw moments like these felt marveled, she finally understood that concept _of frozen in time _that so many speak about when talking about beauty.

Qrow and Yang were strong enough to slowly descend the motorcycle bumblebee back down unto the clean snow, making the white snow splash as it hit the ground. Uriah offered his hand to Maria to help her come down unto the thick coat of the white blanket.

"There is a town not far from here. I intend to go there for my fairy tales." Uriah gave a coy smile to Maria as he did so, she returned the same short affection. "If you want to follow I won't stop you."

The old man walked in a straight line as the group weighed the pros and cons of trusting this crazy stranger out in the frozen mountain range. They put it to a vote.

There was a march for 40 minutes and they all felt their anxiety and fear increase with each step, this stranger not even turning around to see if they still followed just head raised up to look in front of him sometimes removing the snow that crossed across his face. He ducked below a branch and held it high for long enough so Qrow could grab it and let the kids pass in front of him.

As they climbed a hill they broke the tree line, and saw the small village with great smoke lines across the wooded houses and mansions at the edge of a great ice still lake. Uriah pointed at it and spoke.

"There's your fairytale Ruby." He had a crooked smile to him knowing she had to ask him the terrible secrets.

"What is down there Uriah?"

"If the legends are to be true, twisted apotheosis." Again with the cryptic lines and veils on truth. This guy is starting to sound like Ozpin.

They descended slowly, Uriah now fully aware of them, helping Yang and Qrow with the motorcycle so it didn't suffer any stupid damage from sloppy handling. They passed down the main road examining the great wooden buildings with marvelous stained glass, the brick stones building the on high furnaces with even greater black smoke rising above it all. Animals like cows and pigs were pinned behind a great stone house, hidden in huts trying to escape the cold.

The town felt dead, and like Blake had felt before, frozen in time. The village had no walls, no way to protect itself from Grimm, no merchants or guards walking and patrolling the town. They went past a large house with a porch with tables and chairs set outside, the great sign saying _Tavern and Inn: Motetz Dam. _

Uriah checked his pockets making sure his chalk and cobalt bound book was still hidden there.

The inside was blazing hot considering the outside, powered by the great fire in the fireplace, next to the red cloth couches facing it. Behind them was wooden tables and chairs with blue cushions on top of it making a form of dining hall.

Behind the counter was a young woman with pale skin and great sapphire eyes, her hair a short and ill-kept blonde mane with a necklace laying comfortably over a woolen sweater. She looked from the counter and the book that lay there. It seemed she was startled from seeing such a large group specially in the middle of winter.

"Do you have rooms?" Weiss spoke up first. That posture usual to her when wanting to make a business deal.

"Yeah, we got like... empty house…" Her voice was raspy belonging to a frequent smoker and she adjusted herself and her clothing. She kneeled on one knee escaping sight for a moment. She pulled from below a great leather bound book with yellow pages and bloated ink. "I need you to write down your names then I can give the keys to your rooms… How many of you are here?"

"11." Uriah responded. His tone with a hint a of poisonous anger.

"Well if some of you are willing to share we can set you up in 6 rooms with 2 beds each, they aren't very big." They agreed choosing pairs in between them. Qrow and Oscar. Maria and Uriah. Blake and Yang. Ren and Nora. Jaune and Ruby. Weiss would sleep alone that night. She thanked the heavens for some alone time.

"How about some actual food. No offense but I'd like something that isn't freshly hunted deer." Jaunes half joking comment made Nora and Ruby chuckled, a great number of them sat down around the tables of the composed dining hall. Others like Uriah and Maria, Blake and Yang went to their rooms to get cleaned up.

The room wasn't as warm as the main hall, Uriah pressed his hand against the dark wall feeling for a light switch. Maria found it eventually, it was much lower than he mellow yellow light turning the pitch black room clear.

The old man removed his heavy jacket and hat. His leather vest followed shortly, after hanging it all on a hat stand in the corner Uriah examined his face upon the mirror above the cupboard.

"So what do you know of magic Uriah?" The old man turned and faced Maria that sat on the bed.

"Have spent my entire existence hunting it."

"Any luck?" Uriah revealed his left arm, silver and only silver, there was no sign of bolts or electronics and it moved with such natural finesse it was as he was born with it.

"This is magic. An arm formed for a great leader, but he fell, I took this from his gravesite deep below the jungles of Mistral. The only thing that controls it is my mind."

"If you spent your entire life hunting these things I'd imagine you'd have flashier stuff. Should have known not to get my hopes up." Uriah smiled and from his pants pocket he took a small note block. It was made of wasted cobalt with great many pages written inside.

"You should know not all magic comes from objects. Silver Eyed warrior." Maria tried to play the fool in this scenario she answered with a short chuckle and a response.

"What are you talking about you idiot. The snow must have frozen your brain."

"Calavera, it's alright. I am a servant as well. But I chose this path you were forced because of your genes. I know who you are." The old man got on one knee and reached his hand to Maria, she took it cautiously. He spoke the truth, he was older than her after all and was doing this long before she was born.

"What do you know of the silver eyes?" She asked steading her voice from trembling.

"Gifts and curses by the false god, I knew many like you given this… nightmare. I know Ruby also has these. I want to protect her, like I want to protect you. I offer my services." Maria turned to him, the great metal shutters that formed as her eyelids closed somewhat. "We don't need protection."

"A scribe, a lore master. I know the secrets of magic, I've been upon this world for so long wanting the witches head. I am so very lucky to meet you." He touched her cheek and had an honest look to him, as a puppy wanting nothing more than to be petted and said he's a good boy, she hated how it worked on her soft ancient heart.

"I'm not leading this band of youngsters. If you want to follow you'll have to ask them." Uriah smiled and got up back on his feet.

"Thank you Maria, and if you do fall asleep remember to lock the door. I don't know if I'll be coming back up." The old man nodded to her and took his leave, her mind still ablaze with ideas about this stranger out in the mountains. So many why's and hows. It clinged to her throat forming a knot of anxiety only to be expelled with a strong and controlled sigh. Maria wished to sleep.

The others downstairs were served feast after feast, this strange town having delectable meals from the farthest corners of Remnant. Jaune, Nora and Qrow ate like starved animals living in a cave. Ruby alongside Oscar Joined them in the feast but she was more careful, her face stuck with a thousand yard stare.

Weiss and Ren ate a healthy platter with salmon and potatoes covered with sweet vinegar, they made small talk where they could but it all ended back at the stranger, Uriah and his almost miracle discovery of them.

"Do you think he works for Salem?" Weiss asked almost afraid the man would materialize out of thin air behind her.

"I don't know, maybe. He doesn't fit the usual bill of crazy and sadistic. But it's obvious he's not being completely honest with us." Ren responded his hand touching his chin quizzically.

"I think he knows about my eyes." Ruby who now barely touched her meal responded to them bought. Her face furrowed and frustrated. "Of course he knows. It's the worst kept secret of the world." Ruby growled under her breath making all turn to her, the mere sight of seeing the pure and innocent Ruby Rose be pissed at something was so strange that some though truly that the old man had placed a spell on her.

Uriah heard them speak, trying to calm Ruby, telling her that she was safe and it would all work out eventually in the end. But the truth is she wasn't safe, none of them were and it would only take for the sky to turn into pitch darkness for them to see it. So with what little sun rays Uriah could muster, he passed the group and their now muttered speeches to go unto the frozen lake. With chalk in hand he began to draw upon the ice great sigils, offering the heart of the deer and it's blood as sacrifice.

It wasn't long before the sunlight had vanished replaced by the soft feinted moonlight on a overcast day, only to be followed by their rising in shadow and mist like harpies.

"Fucking Vampires."


	2. Chapter 2

The strange feeling of being watched creeped over Blake, but she was alone, for Yang had left to be with her family. She set down the book that she hide from everyone, that small pleasure in the world still sacred to her.

As she got up from the bed, Blake moved to the window and peered out into the frozen darkness. The lights from the Inn illuminating the street bellow, there was a young woman there, same age as Ruby maybe. But she was standing still, her figure like a statue dancing between the dark and light. That girl turned herself to the lake peering into the miasmic shadows, a flash of thunder cut her neck in half, spilling the fountain of blood into the air and ground. Blake screamed in horror as the girl falls to the ground and dies. But she doesn't. The strange girl gets up, her wound now gone replaced by new flesh. Uriah steps into the light facing the girl, his hands playing with great blue and violet lightning bolts. He moves his hand and another spike of the multicolored thunder rippled out and struck the girl on her forehead. This time she doesn't rise up, she is dead, Uriah still felt the need to use a metal axe to cave in the bodies brain.

He shines in beautiful black blood.

Blake rushed to the door to meet her friends, as she swings the door open, the shy awkward girl that ran the Inn stood in front of her. That of course was just an illusion, the girls skin became ash like, her eyes twisted springing to the back of her skull, revealing the horrific popped blood vessels hidden from view. The vampire reached out with a hand with no fingers replaced by immense claws, hard as iron it grasped Blakes neck throwing her across the room. Blakes head is ringing but she makes out some words that the beast whispers under her breath, things like_ pathetic _or _cattle_. The creature swipes its claws to finish Blake off but instead it encounter nothing but a shadow clone, it wasn't the only one with illusions in this place.

Blake put her pistol to the vampires ear pulling the trigger until the magazine became empty. The faunus vomits in her mouth when she peers into the black moosh that composed the beasts brain. Regaining her composure like a true huntress would do, she descends the stairs to the main hall.

Qrow cut two demonic rib cages open with his blade, painting himself in blood. Yang crushes a skull with her metallic fist, Oscar jumps on top of one and stabbed at its face with such ferocity that you could only compare him to a wild animal. Jaune pushes them back with his shield, letting his team to shoot and cut and bludgeon the monsters that assaulted them. Uriah turned some to ash or they simply fell to the side without being touched.

The horde was cut down and there was no losses on their side, these are mindless thralls sent to kill in a bloodlust.

"BLAKE!" Uriah shouts to be heard in the midst of screams of pain and gunfire. "UPSTAIRS RUBY AND WEISS." For a minute she's hesitant, wanting to help those in front of her. Blake turns around and runs back upstairs to find the missing.

Uriah cleaved through them with a beautiful tomahawk, this was not a magic weapon, it was pure man made, it cut through the flesh of the undead like they were soft wet walls begging to be teared down. Jaune with his sword impaled a creature driving it past Uriah, who reaches out and with one swift motion cuts the head off the beast. The blonde boy tripps on a corpse and stumbles, before he falls, Uriah grabs him by the hoodie and pushes him back up. "You slow down we die son." Jaune felt that threat to his core. So he would not falter again, using his immense strength he flips two of the creatures for an easy beheading behind him. Uriah reached Oscar who hid behind Qrow and Nora, placing the chalk and cobalt bound book in his hands Uriah looked into the farm boys eyes and spoke with such poison that if he were made of weaker stuff he'd crack under the words and responsibility. "You know magic boy, draw the sigils on the walls and press them. If you don't we will perish. Do you understand?" Oscar nodded and felt the hidden voice in his head take over his body. "Good lad." The strange wizard quickly got up from his knee, turning back to butcher more of these vermin.

Maria heard the violence downstairs and wanted to leave, but what would she do? She was an old woman, sick and unable to fight whatever is happening downstairs. She hears gunshots outside her door then three large thumps upon the ground, there was banging at the door and the voice of a familiar girl. "Maria!? Are you in there?" Ruby yelled out from outside. "Let me please! They got Weiss!" The old woman climbed out of the bed with her cane in hand and struggled to jimmy open the door, as she opens the door she realizes the mistake she's made. Half of the creature was snake like with the body of a deformed woman with a cut open mouth and dead beady eyes completing the other half of the monster. Maria screamed. Her screams fill the hallways with terrible fear and madness. It grabs the old huntress by the throat dragging her into the cold abyss outside.

Ruby was entering shock now, her leg had been cut up badly that every step she took felt like another stab wound into the open flesh. It had been ten of them that stormed her room and tried to tear her into shredded cheese… "You're gonna be ok Ruby." Weiss voice came in and out of time, from the darkness around her. She felt warm flesh press against her feeling Weiss try to pick her up. She's too weak or maybe exhausted, maybe she wasn't trying hard enough. Ruby never did know how Weiss worked truly.

"Why isn't this working? Why? Why? Why?" Oscar panicked as he pressed the sigils with the palm of his hand, but it did nothing, he checks seven times to find any mistakes but there were none, he followed the instructions to the letter and yet they didn't work. On his knees covered in blood and chunks of flesh he checks the page again, _offer sacrifice to malakabel for true light. _Oscar bit his lips, he knows what that means. He removes his gloves as quick as he can with his mouth. With one hand holding a knife he cuts into the palm of the other and draws blood. With the fresh wound Oscar presses again into the great sigils on the wall. They begin to hum and cling to life.

Great columns of light appear across the building jumping from side to side, passing through normal flesh but atomizing undead bodies and flesh. It's not a big flash but a light show of death, with already dead monsters being killed by a cylinder of light that pierced their flesh but did no harm to others. Uriah finally stumbles to his knees as the last of the vermin is dispatched with great ease from the sunlight that now flooded the room. Others seeing no more danger all let themselves rest from such exhaustion, dropping their harms, they all just breathe with relief in their throats waiting to be expelled.

Weiss and Blake quickly rush Ruby down the stairs, their hands becoming slippery with blood almost drop the poor girl unto the piles of bodies and Carnage at their feet. As the exhausted group try to clear a table so they can operate, Uriah removes his jacket and cuts part of it off to stop the paralyzed girls bleeding.

"Was she bitten?" Qrow and Yang look so distressed, to them they see a young girl almost dying. To Uriah he sees a bump in the road for the girls long path.

"Don't worry about bites, these aren't true vampires. Just mindless slaves wanting to be vampires." Uriah checked her pulse and breathing. He applied small bits ot chalk to forehead and pressed them strongly but they did not achieve any success. Then it hit some of them.

"Where's Maria? Did you two find her?' Uriah's questioning and tone didn't help him get anywhere with them. Their body were pumping so much adrenaline that they probably didn't even pay attention to the question. He knew in his heart of hearts that the reaper still lived. "I'm going for Maria. It took her." It had felt like the whole word had shaken under their feet as Uriah sprinted out to the middle of the road shrouded in darkness. Thunder sparked along his feet as he jumped great heights looking to the miasmic fumes of blackness that inspired this city.

It carried Maria across the frozen lake, to its lair far from the town, it looked like a rat stealing a piece of bread from under a table running right back to it's hole in the wall. Uriah came crashing down with such violent strength that he pierced the ice and fell into the freezing water. It took him only a few seconds to rise to the surface to meet the vampire queen.

Uriah spoke to it with such wrath one might see the entire earth shake and turn under their feet. "Whore of Satan! You will die If you don't let her go." The Vampire was so tantalizing curious about this ones blood. The other was weak and frail, the power in her veins had long since faded. But this one? This was a meal, the beast could smell the raw magic expelled from every fiber of his being. It is truly intoxicating.

The animal dropped Maria unto the ice with a large thud to the frozen flat land. It moved in darkness towards Uriah, slithered around him waiting for the moment he was distracted to go for his throat. Uriah took his trusty tomahawk and felt it's weight, for so many years he thought of it heavy and filled with strife, but now he truly sees the necessity of it. This axe is made to kill disease and vermin, that is what it will do.

The creature lunges forth it's terrible fangs exposed wanting to bite him across the back and feast upon his flesh. Uriah snapped behind himself and with one swing cut the vampires face making it scream in horrible degrading pain.

It coiled back and sprang again, this time too fast, Uriah was struck and thrown across the frozen ice stumbling with such force that he may again pierce the thick plack that covered the lake. The old man quickly got to his feet, feeling in the darkness for something that wasn't there. The vampire queen launched again with a flurry of swipes rippling through the air but missing every one as the old man dodged with a roll and leap behind. Then a miscalculated move, Uriah stepped too far lost his balance and fell to the ground. The demon was upon him too fast, it pierced his skin with such violence that his liver and lungs imploded on contact. The animal felt the warm blood on its body but there was no magic. Not anymore. It simply evaporated, it screamed as there was no power here nothing worth hunting for. The beast turned to go fetch Maria.

As it slithered across the frozen thunder it felt something on it's lower half, a thin white powder began to line it's body. It was chalk. "Gotcha." If it wasn't for the vampire queens greater senses she couldn't have known that it was Uriah standing in front of it with Maria at his side

He touched his chest and recreated a sigil with one swift movement. The demon yelled out insults in strange tongue as it was caught in a blinding beam of light that cut through it's flesh turning it into ash.

This Devil was a being of cursed apotheosis, born out of magic that twisted the body into unholy sights, but it is not true holy immortality given through strength of will or of a higher being.

Uriah is truly immortal, forged from the souls of a slaughter, he has died a thousand times. He will die a thousand more. He will walk the sunburnt planes that the Gods have forgotten and will forget. Uriah the old man, last of his tribe, last great magician, stood now not so alone.


	3. Chapter 3

The fat splashed and burned his skin, Qrow and Uriah worked the kitchen in a quiet agreement. Questions were for breakfast and nothing else. They cooked for everyone, each meal something that each individual would enjoy. The two shared a bottle of gin as they cooked, sometimes they begin to sing a song only to not finish because neither remember the lyrics. It led to a few good laughs among the grown men.

Oscar swepped the rest of the dust that covered the Inn floor to the outside, the boys hand still burned and hissed from the cut he self inflicted last night. Ozpin was quiet that morning, planning something no doubt. It didn't bother Oscar he was glad to finally have some peace and quiet.

Ren and Blake sat around the dinner table with tea their minds still flooded with confusion on what had happened last night. Vampires and Magic being now a reality they never really had to face. They knew magic was real… but never this real.

Their minds turn to the happenings upstairs.

Ruby faded in and out of consciousness, Jaune held her hand and used his aura until he ran into extreme exhaustion. The wound was something that would not heal easily. Weiss had sent him to sleep and to let medicine do its job. Yang was also there watching over little sister, kissing her hand and telling her dumb stories of them as kids. Scared shitless at the possibility of her dying.

Deep within Ruby's mind she sees a world made of sand, of blind man walking into the desert to be devoured by the elements. She walks across this burning heat, to come across a small village made of limestone buildings and a great stone cathedral that did not belong, next to river that truly didn't start anywhere and did not go anywhere. It simply existed to serve the village.

It was empty, no one lived here or if they did it was a long time ago. She thought the blind people lived here, so why had they left? She turned to the great church with its stained glass expressing the victories and sorrows of the faith practiced there. Sitting at the base of the altar was Uriah, he was younger here, his beard had been shaven and his hair was long and brown, the metallic arm replaced by flesh and bone. His eyes were wrong though, not his true golden eyes, but silver just like hers.

The cobalt book in his hands he waved to her in a friendly smile, beckoning for her to sit down and speak to him.

"My dear Ruby do you know where you are?" Uriah was nicer here too. He was honest and had a bright smile to him.

"No. I don't even know how I got here. It's kinda crazy."

"I brought you here Ruby, to tell you of your heritage." Uriah pointed to a massive stained glass that showed The God of Light coming down upon the land with people worshiping him in great pleas of sorrow. "He gifted your people with power, to stop the demons that were conjured from the earth." Uriah gestured to another mural of glass, this one showing a black snake coiled around a plain looking human. "No dust, no tools, pure magic. In your blood, is the power to kill. But this did not sit well with one being." Uriah turned around and now waved his hand at a painting of a woman with long Ashen hair and red eyes, terrible black veins painted her face and hands. "You know her obviously. She's tried to kill you and has successfully killed some of your comrades." Ruby muttered to herself in anger _Salem…_

"Yes the Great Witch. She slaughtered your people, turned them into legends only few of us Immortals remember. For the God had offered them great power to harm but none to protect their flesh. So age or disease or famine or war dwindled down the rare few that still remained."

"And where do you come in Uriah?" She asked this truly wondering about him. If he knew so much about her. She wanted to know about him.

"I am not of your blood if that is what you think. But my tribe suffered under her as well. She wanted a tool of our god, something we protected for many years. So she slaughtered my village, every man woman and child turned to dust upon the sand."

"But you lived." Ruby's quick answer made Uriah chuckle and put his hand on her shoulder in reassurance.

"I did not Ruby. I also died. I am not one soul like you are. I am a combination of one thousand six hundred and seventy two souls all mashed together. We reanimated this corpse out of sheer will power. We are a legion of souls, with so much magic crammed into us that if we were a bomb we could turn Atlas into another Vaccuo. We want to kill Salem, to avenge what she has done against us. Our goal is no higher than that." Uriah pulled out of his pocket a small watch with a little mouse with bright red pants and his arms working as the pointers it was such a cute little thing.

"You're about to wake up now Miss Rose. Anymore questions before you go?"

"Do you know my mom?"

"I know of her. Quite a fair lady, powerful. Some say she's still kicking. Summer is always happening somewhere on Remnant ain't that right?" Ruby nodded, feeling her head dazed, her eyes became heavy and when blinked the great cathedral covered in sand became a distant vision. Another blink and she awoke in her bed, her face hurt and her legs felt strained unable to use them. Yang was standing on top of her kissing her face thanking her for being ok. Weiss smirked and laughed a little at the sight.

She was brought down stairs and sat next to Yang and Qrow. Maria and Uriah brought out the meals with big smiles on their faces. All that sat down, spoke in pleasantries, most nervous about what happened last night but reassured by the old man that the meat and vegetables were safe for consuming. He himself ate slowly waiting for someone to ask a question, and not waiting to be caught unprepared or with a mouth full.

"What else is real besides Vampires?" Qrows question was obviously something he's been holding for a very long time. Uriah answered it with a coy smile.

"As of my knowledge anything of legend. Fairies, Werewolves, Spirits. I've hunted a great many of them but I'm still unsure if I've met everything." His answer seemed satisfying enough to them that for a few minutes they continue to eat and speak without much interrogation between each other.

"Uriah?" Ruby sounded mute, her voice almost gone from the unending yelling of last night.

"Yes?" He answered so cheerfully, he knew exactly what would happen next.

"Can I see your watch?" Uriah reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out the same watch Ruby had seen in her dream, the mouse and the arms as pointers. She knew now that it wasn't fiction.

"Let's talk about my Mom." The table stopped from talking and eating, a cold and dead silence filled the room only for Uriah to respond with a simple.

"Of course Miss Rose I live to serve."


End file.
